Forgot to mention that coming back across the Bay we saw a flying fish. Didn’t know they would be so far south and I have never seen any in NZ before but this was a pretty big fish – 35-40 cm that took off out of the water and “flew” for a good 100 metres or more.
Arriving in Whakatane on Thursday we mentioned to the Coastguard radio controller, Don that Gunner probably knew her way in to the river better than we did as she had been a Coastguard boat at Whakatane back in the 70’s.
We were hoping to see if we could find out a little of her history from around this area but did not expect to get so many visitors from the people of Whakatane. It started not long after we tied up at the wharf. Harbourmaster, Peter Cavanagh was there to meet us and make sure we were secure and checked if there was anything we needed. (What – no forms to fill in, no requests for insurance details, no demands for money, no list of rules and regulations..). Not long after, Don the Coastguard operator dropped by to welcome us. Neither of them knew the boat being fairly new to Whakatane – 15- 20 years, but obviously somewhere around town the word went out that Gunner was in town. Consequently we have had a near constant stream of visitors who have been associated with the boat in somewhere in the past.
(more on that later)
Friday, the weather was pretty abysmal, shower followed shower and so we stayed inside except for an exploratory excursion to town to the supermarket and a bit later to the Irish pub at the Whakatane Hotel for a drink and to listen to a bit of live music. Arriving back at the boat we had a visit from Brian Gibbons, assistant harbourmaster and a local fisherman who owns a couple of boats and we enjoyed having a beer and swapping a few stories.
Saturday’s weather wasn’t much better – if anything the rain was heavier but by the afternoon with a slight brightening the locals started arriving to check out Gunner.
Brian Alderson, a retired fisherman, owned a boat called Abalone. Recognised Gunner from when she was owned by Noel Gwillam and fishing out of Ohiwa Harbour (Ohiwa is the harbour east of Whakatane).
Many of the people around here also remember Gunners other owner, Les Snowcil, who bought Gunner from Noel or Lloyds Insurance after she had been repaired – the brief details of what happened are that Gunner was tied up at the wharf at Port Ohope. The weather depression that created the Wahine storm (1968) in Wellingtons Cook Strait caused the high tides to rise some metre and a half above their normal level.
(For overseas readers – the Wahine storm is so named as the 9000 tonne Wellington-Lyttleton ferry Wahine was wrecked on Barrets Reef at the entrance to Wellington harbour when 150 mph winds drove her onto the rocks and she sunk about 4 hours later with loss of 53 lives).
Consequently Gunner broke her moorings and was taken on the high water many hundreds of metres into the tidal flats. When the tide receeded she was left high and dry on her side. By arrangement the insurance company, Lloyds contracted a drag line that had been working in the area to dig a channel from where Gunner lay back to deep enough water that could float the boat to the wharf for lifting out.
Then Mick Orchard turned up. He is a boatbuilder with a long history around New Zealand and it turns out that he did a lot of repairs to Gunner after the Wahine storm. Mick’s task for which he was paid $1900 was to make repairs to Gunner’s keel and planking which had been damaged when she was dragged into the channel by the dragline.
At this stage Gunner ceased fishing and was converted from work to a pleasure boat by Les Snowcill after he had tendered and purchased the boat from the insurance company.
Another man, a friend of Les’ recalls seeing Gunner on the lawn of Les’s home on the way to Ohiwa. It is here that he did the major refit, extending the wheelhouse and adding the aft cabin area.
Other visitors included, John Baker who runs a local charter boat and remembered Gunner from her days here; Bruce stopped by on his bicycle to reminisce about the Gunner as did Dave Molesworth who has built and sold yachts in the area most of his life.
Everyone remembers Les as an extremely hard worker and clever bloke with great skills as a builder, joiner, welder – sounds like a typical Kiwi. The favourite story of many of the people was when there was a bit of a party at Les’ shed for the launching of the KiaOra. A boat builder, Rodney, had too much to drink and was having a lot of trouble standing up so Les fixed things by clamping Rodney’s overalls into the bench vice which kept him upright until he was delivered home to his mother.
Sunday 19/12/2010
Another wet, windy day after a rainy, windy night. Gunner quite happy and snug tied up at this wharf.
We have now tracked down the grandson of Noel Gwillam who owned Gunner in the 50’s/60’s. Neil Gwillam skippers a fishing boat out of Tauranga and told us that his mother has photos of Gunner in her earlier days at Port Ohope. Hoping to meet Neil tomorrow and maybe get copies of some of the photos.
That about brings us up to date apart from the fact that the weather is not looking like letting up till Wednesday or Thursday. Looks like it may be Christmas Day on the high seas.
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| Our port side view every six hours for the last four days when the tide brings us up to the top of the wharf. |
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